Bertha is blocked by a steel pipe

Bertha, the giant Seattle tunneling machine on vacation for a month has been blocked by a steel pipe put in to measure ground water a few years ago.
It is essentially a well-casing that stopped Bertha in her tracks. Note that this pipe was ON THE SPECS furnished to contractors by the Washington
State DOT:

LOL Touche
Still, there was no steel pipe down there. That little bit of info would have been dropped in the first couple days, not a month later. Naturally
everyone will just believe it because it is an obvious answer. I swear science is just as good as religion at making people believe the lies they are
told.

LOL Touche
Still, there was no steel pipe down there. That little bit of info would have been dropped in the first couple days, not a month later. Naturally
everyone will just believe it because it is an obvious answer. I swear science is just as good as religion at making people believe the lies they are
told.

Well, when you discover how to "invent" fire with sticks or stones and become an important person in the clan, that basic concept lingers on.
Don't look now, but the concept of a God doing monkey business with nature has been ditched by the self-glorification of the temple chiefs with their
tricks with fire. Problems arise however, when other chiefs better endowed with more magical tricks move into your neighborhood. What to do? Oh,
easy, step up the methods of control and deny the magic. That's all they can do now that their fire has sputtered into insignificance.

schuyler
Bertha, the giant Seattle tunneling machine on vacation for a month has been blocked by a steel pipe put in to measure ground water a few years ago.
It is essentially a well-casing that stopped Bertha in her tracks. Note that this pipe was ON THE SPECS furnished to contractors by the Washington
State DOT:

schuyler
Bertha, the giant Seattle tunneling machine on vacation for a month has been blocked by a steel pipe put in to measure ground water a few years ago.
It is essentially a well-casing that stopped Bertha in her tracks. Note that this pipe was ON THE SPECS furnished to contractors by the Washington
State DOT:

No, my title is not misleading. The newspaper is merely speculating. All they have found is a steel pipe 8" in diameter that explains the problem, but
in a typical CYA move they aren't claiming that is ALL the problem until they can safely say so without egg on their faces. They've just got to hold
out hope for a more bizarre explanation such as a UFO.

Also, bear in mind that this is a "breaking news story" that I posted within five minutes of it hitting the Seattle newspapers. I see they are already
revising their story every twenty minutes. But the fact remains that the contractors, though they had been informed about the pipe, bludgeoned their
way right through it without attempting to move it at all. I'm sure they'll have lots of excuses before the inevitable "conclusion" that yep, they
missed the pipe. Of course, they'll prolong that for as long as possible.

schuyler
Bertha, the giant Seattle tunneling machine on vacation for a month has been blocked by a steel pipe put in to measure ground water a few years ago.
It is essentially a well-casing that stopped Bertha in her tracks. Note that this pipe was ON THE SPECS furnished to contractors by the Washington
State DOT:

No, my title is not misleading. The newspaper is merely speculating. All they have found is a steel pipe 8" in diameter that explains the problem,
but in a typical CYA move they aren't claiming that is ALL the problem until they can safely say so without egg on their faces. They've just got to
hold out hope for a more bizarre explanation such as a UFO.

Nice try. Now you're making assumptions. I was joking before, but now I must
reiterate, your title is misleading as that statement is not in the link. 8" pipe blocking that thing that grinds thru granite and iron ore? Ok
sure.

This article makes me want to run head on into a brick wall.
They claim to have known about the pipe since the beginning, but thought it was a secondary issue?
They drilled holes to install pilings, used radar and did further drill tests and somehow missed a 115 foot steel pipe that just happens to be hanging
around in the glacial soil that lies under a thick layer of debris and fill soil?

Thorneblood
This article makes me want to run head on into a brick wall.
They claim to have known about the pipe since the beginning, but thought it was a secondary issue?
They drilled holes to install pilings, used radar and did further drill tests and somehow missed a 115 foot steel pipe that just happens to be hanging
around in the glacial soil that lies under a thick layer of debris and fill soil?

That's right. That this amazes you is, I think, not an issue. We had an earthquake that started this whole thing in, what? 2001, I think? It was
about a 7.2 IIRC. It jolted the Alaskan Way Viaduct and caused some cracks and consternation that the thing would fall down with another jolt like the
equivalent one did in California a few years before. So they did some re-enforcement that added some concrete buttressing and other stuff to make the
thing more rigid on a temporary basis. One of the things they did was dig a well into "the glacial soil that lies underneath a thick layer of debris
and fill soil" just like you said. They were primarily interested in ground water, since this whole construction is a few feet from Elliot Bay, part
of Puget Sound, as well as an ancient (as in late 1800's) sea wall put in place to extend the Seattle waterfront, which is itself deteriorating and
needs replacement as well.

In one sense the Viaduct is ugly as sin and cuts off Seattle from its own waterfront with this two story highway, which just happens to be Highway 99,
the only major highway north south in the fifties before Interstate 5 was built 8 blocks east. So when they built the sucker, it was the only game in
town. In the other sense, traveling into Seattle on top of the viaduct gives you a wonderful view of the Olympic Mountains and Puget Sound. It's just
that you have to be going 60mph to enjoy it. All in all a net loss, I think.

SO, several ideas were floated(!) that sought to take the viaduct down while preserving the traffic flow of this major arterial AND "reclaiming" the
waterfront. The one that won was the tunnel, hence Bertha, named after an early lady mayor of Seattle. Oh, yes, there's lots of controversy and
politics still and lots of people are angry that such a thing was even attempted, so the criticism still flows, but the fact is that it happening and
will be finished. Whether this will wind up like the Big Dig, I don't know. It WILL open up the waterfront and probably make some condo developers
very rich and the condos unaffordable to people like me.

A bit of a quick history. One of my relatives was the first Civil Engineer for the City of Seattle in the late 19th century--even has a piddly little
street named after him, so I may be more interested than most on the topic of how Seattle grew. It simply would not be allowed today for concern about
wetlands, snail darters, and what have you.

But even as Bertha creeps forward we still have to deal with the UFO aficionados and those who can't quite believe that there is a simple pipe
blocking the way and that no conspiracy theories need be invoked. Of course, maybe they'll find a locomotive down there, too, but so far, they've
found nothing but a pipe. I realize ATS is full of civil and hydrology engineers who understand all the vagaries of such projects, and I'm sure
we'll be enlightened by your insights until Bertha pokes out the other end.

Thorneblood
This article makes me want to run head on into a brick wall.
They claim to have known about the pipe since the beginning, but thought it was a secondary issue?
They drilled holes to install pilings, used radar and did further drill tests and somehow missed a 115 foot steel pipe that just happens to be hanging
around in the glacial soil that lies under a thick layer of debris and fill soil?

So what do you think they found down there that they needed to come up with a cover story ?

Dixon said the tunnel-machine crew first noticed metal pieces in Bertha’s conveyor system in early December — when Bertha’s rotation
actually shoved a segment of pipe through the surface, prompting crews to remove a 55-foot-long piece. However, the machine kept grinding forward just
fine, Dixon said, leading STP to have what he called “a false sense of security” that things would be OK. But then on Friday night, Dec. 6, the
cutting face rotated without catching soil. The team later found unusual damage to cutting teeth, and then on Thursday night an inspection found a
pipe fragment jutting through spaces between spokes of the cutter.

STP = Seattle Tunnel Project, which is the name of the consortium of contractors building the tunnel.

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